And one of the comments:I wrote this on my Facebook post but decided to share it here as well:

(After writing and checking over my post, I realized I wrote way more than I planned to. I guess that's what I get for tackling an article filled with so much idiocy.)

Where do I even begin with this article? First of all, the premise of theentire piece is abhorrently shallow. The author claims vegans are sickly, pale, and ugly. Veganism is, by definition, a lifestyle based around reducing harm to animals, not about looking "sexy". The whole purpose of veganism is to accept that the world does not revolve around us, and that there is no need to selfishly cause harm to animals when wedon't need to. It's as if the "journalist", if I can even call her that, has missed this concept entirely. Not only does she think looks are more important than the lives of animals, she goes ahead to body shame thin framed people, listing off vegan celebrities who she personally finds ugly. I'm sure I could compile a list of celebrities who I find unattractive. Chances are they will be meat eaters, considering that 95% of the population eats meat. Am I able to extrapolate my opinion (not data, obviously) to conclude that because these celebrities eat meat, they are physically ugly? No. That would be absurd.

Second to that, I'm not sure she even spent 5 minutes researching what veganism is. Here's an excerpt from the article:"Plants are delicious and we should all consume more of them. However, adiet confined to plants is an asceticism too far: denying the body, as it denies the life – social and otherwise; facilitating animal existenceby curtailing human. For vegans give up not only the obvious meat, fish, eggs and dairy. They are obliged to renounce: sugar (coloured withbone char), honey (the toil of bees – read my colleague Stevie Parle onhow to cook with it), red foods (cochineal, made from insects), sweets,mousses, margarines, peanuts and crisps (gelatin, made from animal waste), soy cheeses (the milk protein casein), many breads (butter, whey), beer and wine (tropical fish bladders), even orange juice (often omega-3 enhanced) and the medicinal Bloody Mary (Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies). The life one subscribes to under such circumstancesis not only obsessional, it is profoundly boring – for oneself and others."

1. Veganism is not a "diet confined to plants". I have never heard of a vegan who only eats plants.2. "...denying the body..." -- What? I don't sacrifice anything. I am not denying my body. I eat foods I love and I am happy.

3. A lot of sugar is NOT processed with bone char. Doesn't take too much effort to do a quick Google search to check whether the kind you buy is vegan or not.4. Only "natural red #4" is carmine. I have eaten plenty of red-coloured vegan foods.

5. "...sweets and mousses..." Again, I can eat a wide variety of sweets. If I want mousse, I can pop down to the Organic Earth Market andgrab a vegan chocolate mousse. Or I could simply make my own easily! She must majorly lack creativity if she's being serious about this.

6. Any grocery store here in North America will have Earth Balance, BlueBonnet Light (never tried it, but apparently it is vegan), or Becel Vegan margarine. Trust me, we are not missing out on margarine.7. Only some beers and wines have isinglass. Most do not. I used to have anapp on my phone that had a huge list of vegan and non vegan alcohol brands. This is nothing a quick Google search can't help her with.

8. Peanuts have gelatin? That's news to me! Peanuts are in the legume/bean family. Why would they have gelatin? They aren't even a processed food.9. Crisps (known as potato chips in North America) do not have gelatin either... really not sure where she's pulling this "information" from. They are literally just potatoes fried in sunflower oil and sprinkled with salt. Why would gelatin even be necessary there?

10. There is only one brand of soy cheese and one frozen "soy mac and cheese" meal here in the grocery stores that contain casein. Tofutti, Daiya, Follow Your Heart, etc. are vegan. There are a LOT of vegan cheeses here in every basic supermarket.11. Wrong about bread. The vast majority of bread has absolutely no milk or butter in it. I think she's thinking of cake. She probably hasn't actually cooked for herself before and likely only eats pre-packaged foods.12. There are maybe one or two varieties of orange juice here that are fortified with vitamin D3 (non vegan) or omega 3 (from fish). The vast majority are unfortified. I've never run into the problem where I can't choose an orange juice because of this, and I've been vegan for more than 4 years (vegetarian for a few years before that).13. Technically she says she is a vegetarian, so does that mean she "sacrifices" a lot as well? She's complaining vegans can't drink beer, wine, orange juice, or BloodyMary's. She also apparently can't eat peanuts or crisps (they are indeed vegan and vegetarian, but for some reason she thinks they aren't)because to her they contain gelatin. Gelatin is not vegetarian nor vegan because it comes from the cartilage of animals. Also, "all" red foods would also have to be left off her plate, since you can't eat carmine and be vegetarian.

Inconsistent logic 101: She says she is vegetarian for ecological reasons. Well, sorry ma'am, but the eggand dairy industries are horrible for the environment. She points out the well known fact that livestock eat a lot more plants than they produce meat (kg for kg) and that we can be feeding humans that soy/corn/grain instead and end up feeding a lot more people. Where does she think her glass of milk and her omelet come from? Do they magically appear out of the sky? Grow from the ground? Uh, no. The cows and chickens from which she gets her dairy and eggs have to, y'know, eat thesame grain, soy, or corn that cows raised for beef would (which she is against) in order to survive. I find it surprising that an environmentalist wouldn't connect the dots with this or at least have done some research about veganism and the environment.

Quote from the article:

"Moreover, if you are using veganism as a weight-loss tool, then at least call a spade a spade and refer to what you are doing as a “diet”, rather than implying some sort of holier-and-more-Hollywood-than-thou mechanism."

Those that avoid animal products for health reasonsdo use a different word for it. They call it a plant-based diet. Again,it doesn't seem like she even looked up the definition of veganism.

Quote from the article:

"Po-faced extremes of behaviour are fundamentally unsexy, whether in politics, religion, hair-shirtedness – or the combination of all three in veganism."

Since when is it "extreme" to choose to not participate in the killing of others? Is it "extreme" for me to say "I won't kill that person walking down the street so I can eat him for lunch. I'll just eat some lentils instead"? Vegans are sexy because theycare about animals. A few years ago there was a "sexy calendar" of shirtless men holding baby animals and women went nuts for it.

She also makes a point to call vegans "neurotic". Hm, after the way her article is going, why wouldn't she think it's okay to perpetuate the stigma of mental illness to go along with her body shaming?

Oh, heck, why not also throw in a critique of her writing ability as well to end it off?

Quote from the article:"Natalie Portman may be incredibly pulchritudinous, but she doesn’t do sexy". I'm pretty sure the writer was hoping that using a large word would mean everyone would skip over that line and not comment on her terrible logic. "Pulchritudinous" means "physically beautiful". As far as I know,physical beauty = sexy.

At the end of the day, it just looks like she is yet another vegetarian who feels threatened by the concept of veganism and is not willing to give up her convenient lifestyle. If this is not the case, then she would follow through with her morals and stay consistent by choosing to go vegan. If not for animals, she should do it for the environment, since she claims to put quite a bit of importance on that. If she wasn't feeling threatened by our very existence, she wouldn't feel the need to write an unresearched attack article aimed at us.

Mod edit: Redacted since copying an article in its entirety is technically illegal. I don't think you're doing them any favors by clicking on the link as long as you don't buy the crepe they're hawking. So just promise me if you click on the link, you won't drop ₤4000 on a Flemish painting or whatever the hell they're advertising.... - hoveringdog

Bill Clinton was notoriously hot stuff as a chipmunk-cheeked burger-guzzler. Rendered a quinoa cultist for “health” reasons, he looks shrivelled, skeletal. Veganism has aged him 20 zombieish years in a way that a cigar habit and two terms at the helm of the Free World did not.

or maybe he's been aged 20 years by, you know, 20 years. cigars and stress are pretty bad for you, but time is the worst.

_________________"rise from the ashes of douchebaggery like a fancy vegan phoenix" - amandabear"I'm pretty sure the moral of this story is: fork pants." - cq

Bill Clinton was notoriously hot stuff as a chipmunk-cheeked burger-guzzler. Rendered a quinoa cultist for “health” reasons, he looks shrivelled, skeletal. Veganism has aged him 20 zombieish years in a way that a cigar habit and two terms at the helm of the Free World did not.

or maybe he's been aged 20 years by, you know, 20 years. cigars and stress are pretty bad for you, but time is the worst.

Well this is what my hubby said, he wasn't exactly a youngster when he was president, and he's got old!

Aside from all of the obvious things that are ridiculous and wrong, she apparently doesn't even understand what being a vegetarian means. I was a vegetarian for 20 years before making the transition to vegan, and in that time I also didn't eat anything with gelatin, things made from insect exoskeletons, or worcestershire sauce (or ceasar salad for that matter). Had I known about isinglass, I would have avoided that too. I stopped wearing leather, wool, and down all as a vegetarian.

Now I make no claims about my sexiness, but at least I know what words mean.

Bill Clinton was notoriously hot stuff as a chipmunk-cheeked burger-guzzler. Rendered a quinoa cultist for “health” reasons, he looks shrivelled, skeletal. Veganism has aged him 20 zombieish years in a way that a cigar habit and two terms at the helm of the Free World did not.

or maybe he's been aged 20 years by, you know, 20 years. cigars and stress are pretty bad for you, but time is the worst.

True. I also remember Clinton being ridiculed frequently for being "fat" and always eating fast food.